Chapter 140 Sheep and Tiger
Half a month after officially taking over the position of commander, Wang Rong took action without making any fuss.

He joined forces with Zhou Anmin, and using his own authority as commander and the assistance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he directly grasped the weak spot of the commander-in-chief.

Then, Wang Rong took advantage of the victory and captured the commander-in-chief in the same way. He also mobilized Wang Jinwu and his own people to join forces with the Jinyiwei to arrest Wei Zhenfu and several centurions and trial centurions on actual charges. One of the guys was even beheaded by him for a real crime.

It was a thunderous move that happened within just a few days. No one in the garrison would have thought that Wang Rong, who usually had a smiling face, could be so vicious. What's more, Wang Rong was not only the commander of the garrison, but also had connections with the Jinyiwei. Now he had everyone's handle in his hand, and with a head, everyone could see Wang Rong's methods.

The one smiling is not a sheep, but a man-eating tiger.

Wang Rong did not kill all these people. After forcing them to "surrender", he adopted a policy of winning them over privately, secretly promising them some benefits, and also used some means to tie them under his command.

Just like that, in less than a month's time, Wang Rong completely dealt with the garrison. After taking over the garrison, everyone thought that Wang Rong would take advantage of the victory and continue to attack the Qianhu garrison below. However, Wang Rong unexpectedly did not do so. Not only did he not attack the Qianhu garrison, but on the contrary he showed goodwill to several Qianhu of the garrison and told them privately that as long as they recognized him as the commander and did not cause trouble for the garrison, the garrison would never find fault with the Qianhu garrison in the future.

Not only that, Wang Rong also told these thousand households that he had a profitable business, and if they were willing, they could work together. He guaranteed that the money they would earn in the future would be better than that earned by exploiting the military households and farming.

Who would refuse such a good thing? For the Qianhu Suo below, these Qianhu were originally hereditary positions. All they wanted was to make money and live a peaceful life. What did they care about the fighting in the guards? As long as it did not affect the Qianhu Suo, the Qianhu had no intention of intervening.

Moreover, Wang Rong also offered this benefit, which attracted their interest even more. After trying to cooperate once, they really made money through smuggling salt and other trade transactions. As a result, these thousand households immediately stood on Wang Rong's side and became his supporters.

After settling the internal affairs of the garrison and taking care of the 1000-household garrisons, Wang Rong's position as the commander was completely secure. Even if there were still people in the garrison who were dissatisfied with Wang Rong privately, Wang Rong didn't care. What were just one or two people? With great power in his hands and the support of the 1000-household garrisons below, his position as the commander was as stable as a rock.

As for these people, there is no threat in keeping them for the time being. Besides, there is still a long time to come. If they still don't know what's good for them and continue to secretly oppose him, Wang Rong will have plenty of time and ways to deal with them in the future.

"My father has the final say in the garrison now. When he first arrived, that fellow commander had a weird look on his face when he saw my father. But if you go and have a look now, you will see that this fellow is so attentive that he wants to serve my father as if he were his own father. Haha! Hahaha!"

As Wang Jinwu spoke, he could not help but burst into laughter. Zhu Shenzhui also smiled when he heard it. Zhu Shenzhui knew Wang Rong's abilities better than anyone else. It was normal for him to control the garrison, not to mention that he had Zhou Anmin's help. Even without Zhou Anmin, it would only be a matter of time for Wang Rong to control the garrison with his means.

"Zhao Da and the others...?"

"Everything has been settled." Wang Jinwu lowered his voice and said, "Not only Zhaoda, but now Yangtou Mountain, Zhaowuling and Zhaowu Village have all become 100-household units. These two 100-household units are not under the jurisdiction of the 1,000-household units, but are directly governed by the garrison. In addition, the 1,000-household units below are now helping us with the private salt trade. These guys are very bold and have already sold the private salt directly to Zhili, Shaanxi and Henan."

"Although the profit is not as big as before, the shipment volume has increased several times. We have made a lot more money. By the way, Sixth Brother, did you see Xia Dong since you came to Pingyang? Didn't he tell you about this?"

"I came in a hurry and didn't see him, but Kang Youfu mentioned a few things to me, but I'm not very clear about the details."

"Haha, then I have to talk to you about this in detail..." Wang Jinwu grinned, and immediately told Zhu Shenzhui in detail the cooperation model with the Qianhu Suo below, including the current salt sales channels of the Qianhu Suo. After listening, Zhu Shenzhui was in a very good mood. Wang Rong is now setting up a private salt alliance with the Qianhu Suo. Except for their original channels which are still controlled by themselves, the rest are assigned to the Qianhu Suo.

In other words, several thousand-household offices joined forces to divide up the rest of Zhu Shenzui's original private salt channels. The source of private salt was provided by Wang Rong, and the thousand-household offices were responsible for the actual shipment. Wang Rong changed from the initial self-purchase and self-sales to private salt wholesale. In this way, while ensuring that his own channels were not affected, he also expanded his business and obtained extra profits.

Moreover, due to the involvement of Qianhu Suo, the sales channels of private salt have now gone beyond Shanxi and directly involved the surrounding provinces.

This not only expanded the market, but also squeezed the market of other private salt dealers in Shanxi. If ordinary people did this, those private salt dealers, including salt merchants under the banner of official salt, would have already started a commotion. This would destroy their jobs. The market is so small, and if you take over the market, what will they eat?

But facing the Qianhu Suo, these people had no way to deal with it. In addition, Wang Rong and his men were also openly using the banner of official salt, so even the local officials could not control it. Especially since Wang Rong had the Jinyiwei behind him, and Zhou Anmin's Jinyiwei were not vegetarians, for the sake of safety, Wang Rong and Zhou Anmin discussed and took the initiative to send a share of this deal to Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch Wei, and Wei Liangqing, uncle and nephew, in the capital, which was equivalent to another layer of insurance.

The relationship between local garrisons, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the capital.

The power of these three parties is so great that not only the local government, but even the provincial government can't do anything about them. Now, this business has gradually grown, and the Qianhu Suo who benefited from it are grateful to Wang Rong. To put it bluntly, Wang Rong told them to go east without blinking an eyelid and roll up their sleeves to work.

As for the garrison, Wang Rong did not treat them unfairly. He took a portion of the profits and distributed them to everyone. With these substantial benefits, the original attitude of the garrison towards Wang Rong changed greatly. From the original opposition to the recovery and then to the current willingness, the change is obvious. "Sixth brother, this matter was supposed to wait for you to come back and make the final decision, but my father did not expect the change to be so fast. After the business of Qianhu Suo was spread out, my father could only discuss with my brother-in-law and arrange it this way first. If you think it is inappropriate..." Wang Jinwu explained a little embarrassedly. Zhu Shenzhui smiled and waved his hand: "This business is not mine alone. It is very good that my uncle and brother-in-law arranged it this way. Even if I were here, I would consider it this way. It's okay."

"Hehe, I told you, you will definitely agree." Wang Jinwu laughed again.

As they were talking lively, they heard footsteps outside the door. Before they saw anyone, they heard a familiar voice.

"Liu'er! When did you arrive? You didn't even tell me you were coming to the garrison!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Rong appeared at the door. Seeing his uncle coming back, Zhu Shenzhui quickly stood up and saluted Wang Rong.

"Come on, we're all family, why are we doing this?" Wang Rong waved his hand and sat down carelessly. He picked up the teapot in front of him without using a cup, shook it to feel how much tea was in it, and then drank from the spout of the pot in big gulps.

He drank half the pot of tea in one breath, wiped his mouth and put the pot aside, saying in a very comfortable manner: "Damn, I'm dying of thirst!"

"Uncle, you are the commander now, why do you still behave like this?" Seeing his look, Zhu Shenzhui asked jokingly with a smile.

"What? I'm not myself anymore after becoming the commander? Besides, others may not know how I became the commander, but you do." Wang Rong rolled his eyes at him and said carelessly, "This is not an exam to become a civil servant. The guards are all soldiers. If you are literary, the people below will not obey you. This is good."

"Hahaha!" Zhu Shenzhui laughed out loud and gave Wang Rong a thumbs up. He thought that his uncle was truly a talent and it was a right move to put him in this position.

Wang Jinwu smiled and went to wash and brew a pot of tea. He sat down next to his father and poured him a cup of tea. "Dad, Sixth Brother has been waiting for you for a while. Didn't he say he would be gone for half a day? Why did he come back just now?"

Wang Rong shook his head, looking somewhat unhappy as he said, "I get angry when I talk about this. Yesterday, the prefecture sent someone to ask me to go to the government office. I originally thought it was some trivial matter, but when I went there, I realized that they were planning to attack the garrison."

"A plan to attack the garrison? What plan?"

"Provide food! Provide manpower!"

"Provide food? Provide manpower?" Zhu Shenzhui was stunned and looked at Wang Rong in confusion.

Wang Rong told Zhu Shenzhui that he went to the government office to meet the prefect, who said that the Shanxi governor Xu Shaoji had some brain damage and actually wanted to raise grain and manpower in Shanxi.

Shanxi is not a place that produces grain. Shanxi is mountainous and has many minerals, but it does not produce much grain. Shanxi has always been insufficient in grain self-sufficiency and needs to transport grain from Henan and other places.

Xu Shaoji was the governor, and through the governor's office, he sent orders to the prefectures and garrisons, asking them to raise food and send out personnel. This was not wrong in theory. Let's not talk about the local area for now. The original intention of the garrison was to be self-sufficient to meet military needs. But now it is no longer the Hongwu Dynasty. After more than 200 years, how are these garrisons now? How could these big turbans not know?

It's okay for you to get food from the local area, but it's wrong to target the garrison. How can the garrison give you any food? And even if it does, why would they give it to you?
As for people, there is no need to mention it. The garrisons are based on the military household system. The registered military households nominally belong to the national army, but the current military households in the garrisons are no longer the same as the original ones. Only each garrison knows how many military households it can maintain to go to the battlefield.

The military households below had long been no different from the farmers, and many ordinary military households had even become tenants of the thousand-household and hundred-household offices. Xu Shaoji was simply crazy to have thought of such a thing.

"What's your reply?" After understanding the whole process, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but ask.

"Haha, what else can we say?" Wang Rong sneered, "There is no food, and no people... either!"

Wang Rong said, "Over the years, the court owes the garrisons a lot of money, and Xu Shaoji is actually planning to take advantage of the garrisons? Let's not talk about anything else, just make up the debt first, otherwise there's no need to talk. Besides, it's not that easy to send people. Which garrison is willing to send people like this? The nine borders still need military pay, and the garrisons are not border troops. Why would Xu Shaoji do this?"

(End of this chapter)

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